Four senior administrators in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) have been taken to Buganda Road Court at 11am to face charges of corruption, this website has learnt.
The four who were arrested for causing government a financial loss of shs 4 billion after inflating prices of COVID-19 relief food include; Permanent Secretary Christine Guwatudde, Accounting Officer Joe Wanjala, Assistant commissioner procurement Fred Mutimba and commissioner disaster management (head COVID-19) Martin Owor.
They were arrested by State House anti-corruption unit in an operation headed by Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema.
Nakalema in her statement said, Guwatudde and ilk had rejected food supplies at low cost and opted to inflate figures by shs 500 and ended up causing a loss of shs 4 billion.
The officials quoted Shs 3900 per kilogram of maize flour as opposed to the market price of Shs 2500-3000 and Shs 4500 per kilogram of beans as opposed to Shs 3000-4000 market price. Government ordered 9,030,000 kilograms of maize flour and 635,000 kilograms of beans.
The suppliers included Afro Kai Uganda Ltd, Global Trust Ltd, Mandela Millers and Aponye Uganda Ltd.
Nakalema handed them to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for interrogation and were later detained in four separate police cells for the whole Easter holiday.
